A survey conducted by Waterloo region newspaper The Record has found that the city of Kitchener provides residents with the best balance of services. The Record concludes this after surveying all of the city halls in the Waterloo regions.
A high level of service at an efficient cost in the community is conducive to the local economy and business culture in Kitchener. The results of the local survey should promote both new business and residents to make their home in the city, which is excellent news for local companies providing printing services to new and booming communities.
The well run city of Kitchener provides the highest level of service in a tie for the lowest cost, making tax dollars stretch far. Both Cambridge and Waterloo fared lower in both the level of service and the cost categories. The results of the survey in fact reaffirmed the 2009 benchmark levels and the ranking of the cities remained unchanged.
The new survey is more extensive than the 2009 survey and considers 138 measurements, including things firefighting, roads, libraries, parks and recreation and sewers in its assessment. Municipal services provided by the government are excluded. While the province of Ontario requires city halls to report the benchmarks, there is no minimum or legislated service level.
The analysis of the survey illustrates that in the city of Kitchener both efficiency and effectiveness are important, and the city hall strikes a healthy balance between both cost and quality.
